Was that a protocatech you ate?

Jody Puglisi's lab has published some data comparing the now common glucose oxidase/catalase deoxygenation system (which we used to call "gloxy" in grad school, but which my current lab now calls "scav") with the protocatechuic acid/protocatechuate-3,4-dioxygenase system. This is typically used to extend fluorescent dye lifetimes and for preventing photodamage from optical traps, by removing oxygen radicals from solution. We learned about this from some of our collaborators a few months ago, and it's good for systems which don't tolerate glucose well. The Puglisi lab reports that it has some advantages in terms of dye lifetime over the gloxy system, but I haven't looked at the details yet. Our experience, however, has been that protocatechuate is much more expensive than glucose oxidase for the same specific activity, and tends to be contaminated with RNAse. So, it has to be purified before it can be used in RNA systems. Your mileage may vary, as they say.